BROOKFIELD, Wis. (AP) -- A Wisconsin man who had been accused of domestic violence and slashing his wife's tires took a gun into the spa where she worked Sunday and shot seven women, three fatally, before killing himself, a police chief said.

The shootings set off a confusing, six-hour search for the gunman that locked down a nearby mall, a country club adjacent to the spa and the hospital where the survivors were taken. The search froze activity in a commercial area in Brookfield, a middle-to-upper class community west of Milwaukee, for much of the day. Ultimately, he was found dead in the spa.

Authorities said it would take time to sort out exactly what happened, and emphasized they were still interviewing witnesses and rescuers and did not have a firm timeline of events.

Radcliffe F. Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, is wanted by police in a shooting near Milwaukee on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012. Police said he is 6 feet 2 inches tall and 210 pounds.

At a news conference Sunday night, Mayor Steve Ponto called the shootings "a senseless act on the part of one person."

The chaos started around 11 a.m. at the Azana Day Spa, a two-story, 9,000-square-foot building across from a major shopping mall. The first officers on the scene found the building filled with smoke from a fire authorities believe was set by the suspect, Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, Brookfield Police Chief Dan Tushaus said.

They also found a 1-pound propane tank they initially thought might be an improvised explosive device, Tushhaus said. That slowed the search of the building as law enforcement agents waited for a bomb squad to clear the scene.

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Tushaus said later that police didn't know whether the gunman brought the propane tank to the spa or it was left by a contractor.

The search also was complicated by the layout of the building, with numerous small treatment rooms and several locked areas, Tushaus said. While officers initially thought the gunman had fled the building, they later found his body in one of the locked areas, he said.

The bodies of the victims were also found in the spa. Tushaus said investigators were still working to identify them. He said the four survivors were between the ages of 22 and 40. He didn't know if they were employees at the spa or customers, and it wasn't clear if the man's wife was among the victims.

Haughton had recently been arrested after witnesses identified him as the person who slashed his wife's tires, police said.

He appeared in court Thursday. A four-year restraining order was issued, and Haughton was ordered to turn any firearms over to the sheriff's department.

Haughton's father, Radcliffe Haughton, Sr., spoke to a television station and The Associated Press shortly before police announced his son's death. In telephone interviews from Florida, he said he had last spoken to his son a few days ago, but didn't have any indication anything was wrong. He begged his son to turn himself in.

After learning of his son's death, he said, "This is very sad."

Police released little about Haughton other than a physical description and a photo. They said he was wearing a grey sweater, jeans, and carrying a white and black backpack. They said he was 6-foot-2, and more than 200 pounds.

Online court records showed a temporary restraining order was issued against Haughton in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Oct. 8 because of a domestic abuse complaint. Haughton appeared in court Thursday, when a no-contact order was issued and he was told to turn all his weapons over to the sheriff's department.

It was not clear who sought the restraining order, but his father said he was married.

His wife, Zina Haughton, has a beautician's license and might have worked at the salon, Haughton's father said.

Haughton's father said his son asked to stay with him in Florida after the restraining order was issued.

"He told me, 'I have to get out of Wisconsin,'" said Radcliffe Haughton Sr., who spoke with his son last week on the phone.

The younger Haughton grew up in Wheeling and Northbrook, Ill., and spent four years in the Marines after high school. He later became a general manager of a Fields car dealership on Green Bay Road. He lost that job a few years ago, his father said, and might have been working in sales again.

A sea of ambulances and police vehicles collected at the scene shortly after the shooting. A witness, David Gosh of nearby West Allis, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel he was returning from duck hunting with his father and a friend when he saw a woman emerge from the spa, screaming, as she ran into traffic. The area is near an interstate and a busy commercial road.

"She ran right out into the street was pounding on cars," Gosh told the newspaper. He said that moments later, a man with a handgun ran out, and appeared to be chasing her, then went back inside.

People inside the mall were patiently awaiting updates, and for word they could leave. Gina Kralik, a bartender at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in the mall, said people had been allowed to leave at one point but then police had decided not to let anyone come or go from the mall. She said 18 people were there -- all employees except for a couple reporters who managed to get in.

"We're just sitting watching the news and also trying to find out what's going on," she said about 3 p.m.

Austin Della, 17, was working at a department store in the mall when he heard announcements over the loudspeaker asking people to move their cars out of one of the parking lots. The mall was then locked down for almost three hours, he said, and customers joked about the good service they would get as the only clients in the whole store.

"Everyone was really calm," Della said. "If not for all the announcements, I don't think anyone would have known that anything was happening."

It was the second mass shooting in Wisconsin this year. Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old Army veteran and white supremacist, killed six people and injured three others before fatally shooting himself Aug. 5 at a Sikh temple south of Milwaukee.

The shooting at the mall took place less than a mile from where seven people were killed and four wounded on March 12, 2005, when a gunman opened fire at a Living Church of God service held at a hotel.